Air Mauritius, the national carrier of the island economy, has been awarded the prestigious 4-star professional quality rating by airline and airport consultancy Skytrax, in a major testimony to the success of its 7-Step recovery plan.

The award was presented to Air Mauritius CEO André Viljoen and Chairman Dass Thomas by Skytrax Chairman Edward Plaisted, on Tuesday July 8, 2014 at the Swami Vivekananda International Convention Centre.

“I am delighted to be receiving this award together with André on behalf of all of us at Air Mauritius. The 4-star status places Air Mauritius in another league – among the world’s best 40 airlines,” said Thomas.

“It is also testimony to the great work accomplished over the past years by the board, management and all team members to take the airline to further heights,” he added.

“We now need to continue our efforts in order to sustain the improvements made and continue to deliver value to our customers. This is the only way to remain in the game in this highly competitive industry,” he added.

André Viljoen, who leads the airline’s recovery and sustainability programme known as the 7-Step Plan, was equally thrilled with the award.

“We have come a long way from where we were three years ago. We took some tough decisions and revised our business model with the assistance of Seabury APG,” André Viljoen said.

“We all embraced the 7-Step Plan as our plan and kept focusing on it. I wish to dedicate this award to all the team members of Air Mauritius for all the hard work they have put in since we embarked on our journey to Step-Up service,” he added.

Keeping the focus firmly on the customer was and continues to be the objective of Air Mauritius, he noted.

“Step 6 was about customer experience, and we set up a Customer Experience function,” André Viljoen said.

 “We enlisted the support of Ron Kaufman to assist us with an education programme for the entire organisation. We also set up many project teams to work on the improvement projects. These were rolled out in record time, showing the commitment of the whole company to make change happen,” he elaborated.

André Viljoen also acknowledged that these improvements have enabled Air Mauritius to reach the coveted 4-star status.

“I’m grateful to Skytrax for this recognition and our challenge now will be to constantly deliver 4-star standards across the whole airline,” he said. “This is a challenge and a commitment our team is prepared to take,” he concluded.

Skytrax operates the Airline Rating system established 14 years ago, and is recognized worldwide as the professional, unified airline quality rating classification and the airline industry benchmark for Quality Excellence.

Finally, the 5-star airline rating represents the highest quality ranking standard for a commercial airline.

In a major testimony to the success of its 7-Step recovery plan, the national carrier of the island economy has been awarded the prestigious 4-star rating by airline and airport consultancy Skytrax, only one step away from the ultimate, 5-star rating. (Image: Air Mauritius)

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